The Palm OS Ends With a Whimper

PetManimal writes "Computerworld reviews the Palm Treo 755p, the last Palm device with the Palm OS, and concludes that the OS is going out not with a bang but with a whimper. The article says there are some useful improvements (better integration with Exchange and IM, limited speech recognition, etc.) but 'nothing that will make you sit back and say "wow."' Palm already has at least one device with Windows Mobile (the 700w) and soon will make a big push to Linux devices, maybe by the end of the year. But the Palm OS, which was top dog for a while back in the 1990s, and is still used by many people who own Palm Pilots or Treos, is going to quickly fade, it seems."

Comments

palm interface on a linux kernel?

[User 956]

Palm already has at least one device with Windows Mobile (the 700w) and soon will make a big push to Linux devices, maybe by the end of the year. But the Palm OS, which was top dog for a while back in the 1990s, and is still used by many people who own Palm Pilots or Treos, is going to quickly fade, it seems.

Ok, but what will the interface for those Linux devices look like?

Re:palm interface on a linux kernel?

[Archibald Buttle]

They are talking Intel for the platform, same as the latest generation of, well, everything. Processor should be in the 400mhz neighborhood. Sorry to be a pedant, but it's highly unlikely that Palm will be using an Intel platform for any of their machines, especially not a mobile phone. It is however likely that they will use XScale, which is these days owned by Marvell.

Re:palm interface on a linux kernel?

[rbanffy]

Sorry, but you have your facts wrong.

Microsoft never did a big kernel switch. They had two different kernels - the "classic" one that was in 3.x with win32s and 9x up to Windows Me and the NT that started back in the 3.1 days and went up to the 2000, in two different product lines. They co-existed in different products for many years. What MS did is that they kept more or less the same look and feel on two different kernels and they simply EOL-ed the older one when they came out with Windows XP.

They never did a kernel transition within the same OS.

They only discontinued the 9x line when they thought XP was good enough for playing games.

Which, by the way, is pretty much what XP is good for ;-)

What's the status of handwritting recognition?

[oni]

To anyone who owns a modern PDA, how fast can you write? I've went through two Palms (no pun intended) and two handspring visors back in the late 90's and I loved them - but more importantly, I could enter text at least twice as fast as anyone I knew who had a WinCE device.

Has that changed?

Re:What's the status of handwritting recognition?

[5pp000]

Forget handwriting recognition. Fitaly, a tap-optimized virtual keyboard, is much faster -- in my experience, at least twice the speed of pen and paper. And while it's neither as fast nor as accurate as touch-typing, it's plenty good enough to make it unnecessary to carry around one of those folding keyboards.

I've used Fitaly on a Tungsten T3 to take voluminous notes at multi-hour seminars. It's that good. I wouldn't even think of going back to Graffiti.

Good.

[koreth]

I have owned various PalmOS devices for over a decade, and still use my Treo 650 daily, but I'll be happy to see the old OS go. It's unstable (a null pointer access will reboot the whole device), has no OS-level support for multitasking (applications have to hook into timer interrupts to run in the background), the memory management system is a monstrosity to code for, it has no ability to launch apps directly from a removable memory card, and even its strong suit, the UI, has some serious problems (try replying to an SMS message when you're in the middle of doing something else; when you're done sending the message it will take you back to the app launcher rather than to what you were doing.)

A new Linux-based core will solve many of those problems inherently. Plus, one hopes, it will be even more hackable. So I say good riddance to the old OS.

Disgusting

[JonnyO]

Great: Windows Mobile can handle screen resolutions my Commodore could handle 20-something years ago. Ah, progress. Seriously, has anyone tried using Windows Mobile for anything serious without wanting to send their device to an untimely death? I tried a VX6700, replaced it with a Treo 700w, and replaced that with a Motorola Q, all within the past year. I eventually paid (or, in all honesty, my employer paid) Verizon's termination fee just so I could get out of the contract so I could get something else. If you want to experience Windows Mobile, take a ten-penny nail and drive it into your crotch... it's about the same feeling. I now have a BlackBerry Pearl, and - I can't believe I'm saying this - I quite like it. It's responsive, doesn't crash if you look at it, actually knows that it's supposed to charge when the power cord is attached, syncs with my mail, and just plain works. All the things a WM5 device does not.

Re:Palm is dead, long live Palm

[that this is not und]

I started with a Visor Platinum, went to a Tungsten E, then rolled all the way back to a Palm III, because it:

1. Does everything I want a PDA to accomplish.
    and
2. Is one HECK of a lot more durable than the Visor, or the pitiful flimsy Tungsten E (which failed a few weeks out of warranty)
    and
3. I have found Palm IIIs in almost new condition sell on eBay for under $10 at this point in time.
    and
4. I have Code Warrior for PalmOS, so I can code up any practical PDA-scaled application that I need for classic PalmOS and will be able to forever.

Maybe I have taken a 'survivalist' approach, but I'm hunkering down and buying Palm III devices for my stockpile. They're 'good enough' and it's wonderful to still have a PDA that I don't have to charge, and that runs for several months on each battery change (two AAA's, mind you.)

It's sort of ironic that one can be luddite these days and an active user of a Palm Pilot at the same time.